A while back ago I was having a conversation with a person who had bad breath. I wondered how many other people also felt he had bad breath, but never told him because they didn’t want to hurt his feelings. Then it hit me, what if I am that guy? The guy with the bad breath that nobody will tell on the count of they don’t want to hurt my feelings.

Since then, I always carry around breath mints with me, and I always pop one in before I am meeting with someone. Here are some interesting facts about bad breath:

• 65% of the population is believed to have bad breath
• The number reason why people don’t purchase from a salesman is because of their breath
• The Romans believed that the cure for bad breath was strawberries
• Dry mouth is a major cause of bad breath
• 90% of bad breath is caused by bacteria on the back of your tongue
• You should rinse your mouth after Coffee, Milk products, meat, and fish
• Not flossing your teeth everyday is the same as not brushing your teeth for 2 weeks

I would recommend brushing your teeth twice a day, flossing, and using a powerful mouth wash. Also, use breath mints and sugarless gum. You might also want to ask someone you trust to be honest if you have bad breath. Start to notice patterns of bad breath associated with food and then work on eliminating those foods or using mouth wash afterwards. I just got done drinking some coffee over at Cutters Point Coffee on Lacey Blvd so I better go brush my teeth now…

Millions of people have MySpace and Facebook accounts, but is it helping or hurting them? I’ve had a MySpace account now for over a year (http://profile.myspace.com/rohit_rohila). Not only was it a great way to keep in touch with friends, but it was an incredible opportunity to get in touch with friends from my past. Although I was having a blast, it was slowly becoming very addictive. Comments, Adds, Top 8, and of course, the famous Tom became a part of my regular routine.

However, I made a decision to use MySpace for good instead of evil With a great number of employees turning to the Internet to research perspective employees, it has become very important to be very careful about how you portray yourself online. A quick Google search can be a lot more revealing than you may wish. Here are some of the changes that I made to my MySpace account. Many of these changes can be made to Facebook and other Social Networking sites as well.

1. What’s My Name?: My name went from “Rohit” to “RohitRohila.com”. That way, whenever anyone sees my name, they know my website address as well.
2. Hide The Evidence: I took off any pictures that might be “inappropriate,” including that picture of me dressed up like a Playboy Bunny for Halloween… ah… I mean the picture of me dressed up like Darth Vader.
3. Brand Yourself: My main picture was changed to a more professional picture. It is the same picture that I now use for all of my avatars, including AIM, MSN, Google, Yahoo, MySpace, MyBlogLog, Facebook, etc. I want people to instantly see that picture and associate it with me.
4. Join Groups: MySpace presents great opportunities to start networking. I joined many groups that were related to my interests of personal development, growth, and entrepreneurship. I can now make bulletin’s to those groups about my posts.
5. Blogs: I started posting the articles from this website as Blogs on my MySpace. However, instead of posting the entire article, I posted an excerpt and then told the reader that the entire article can be found on my website.
6. Bulletins: Bulletins can also be an effective way to communicate your messages. I started to send bulletins with entire articles and saw an increase of traffic flow.
7. Your Profile: Although customizing your profile is an excellent way to express yourself, many people can get a bit carried away. Bright flashing stars, pink backgrounds with yellow letters, videos, music, pictures, it’s enough to drive anyone insane. I changed my profile to be very simple, and to look very similar to my website. There isn’t any flash to it, but it’s also not annoying.
8. Famous Friends: There are many personal development speakers and authors who are also using MySpace to promote their business. I began to add them as friends. Now I can post comments on their MySpace profiles for others to read. I tell about an interesting article that I just posted, with a link to that post.
9. Leave Comments: I started to post comments on my friend’s pages who might be interested in one of my posts. For example if I had a post about Customer Service, I could leave a comment about that article on a friend’s page who works in Fast Food.

By making these changes, 8% of my websites traffic is now through MySpace. I would love to hear how some of you have promoted yourself through Social Network sites like MySpace and Facebook.

WARNING: Be careful not to overdue it with the comments or the references to your website. Over advertising can be annoying and cause people to not visit your site at all.

One of the most important listening techniques that I have come across is what has been called the SOFTENER Technique.
S mile
O pen Body
F orward Lean
T ouch
E ye Contact
N odding
E nergy Level
R elative Distance

Smile- Sounds simple, doesn’t it? When someone is talking to you, smile! So few people do it, and most who do it abuse it. Don’t just stand there smiling the entire time. The speaker gets the feeling that they are not important, nothing special about them, that you just smile at everyone and everything that walks by. Instead do what Liel calls a “Flooding Smile.” Instead of immediately smiling, take a second, pause, look at the speaker’s face, then slowly smile. The speaker feels as if though you are smiling because of them, and they get the feeling that you find them special. They will be drawn to you and your magnificent smile!

Open Body Language- Close your eyes, imagine that you are speaking to someone. They are standing still, arms crossed, not moving at all. Did you feel comfortable? Did you get the feeling that the other speaker had more important things on his mind? Often times this is the way we listen and we don’t even realize the negative message we are sending out. Instead of crossing your arms, simple place your hands behind your back. Not only is it comfortable, but you give off the impression that you are extremely interested in the other speaker.

Forward Lean- Have you ever really looked around in the movie theater? You can always tell when the climax of the movie is because everyone is on the edge of their seats. It shows that they are extremely interested in what is going on. Just like at the movies, when you are engaged in a conversation, lean forward a little and let the person speaking know that you are hanging on their every word. Now don’t lean to far, and don’t lean all the time, just every now and then and only when appropriate.

Touch- When you are speaking with someone, and they reach out and touch your arm or your hand, how does it make you feel? A light simple touch gives the speaker a sense that a connection has been made. When a person tells a joke, laugh, smile, touch their shoulder or arm, and make a little comment about how funny they are.

BE VERY CAREFUL!!!! It is VERY easy to give the wrong impression with light touches. There are some social rules that must be followed. First off only touch a person 1 time, anymore and it’s too much. Second, do not touch at work. Third, if you are a male, be careful that you will not offend a female speaker.

Eye Contact- We hear all the time how important eye contact is, yet we still don’t do it. You should close out the world and focus on the speaker. The other day I was in a meeting with a business associate. Several times in our hour long meeting, he looked at his watch, his cell phone, and the people walking by. Now I’m sure he had reasons for doing this, maybe he had a meeting to go to afterwards and was on a tight schedule? Maybe he was supposed to meet someone? Whatever the case, I felt like he was bored with what I was saying and was looking around for anything that was more exciting.

Another time when you should have great eye contact is when you are speaking to a group of people. Now there are many who believe that you should scan the room, making brief eye contact with everyone and keep your eyes moving. I feel that this just creates an illusion of being aware of your audience. Instead, as you are speaking, look directly into the eyes of a random individual for a few seconds. Not only does this let them know that you are aware of them, but they will make certain to pay extra attention in case you look at them again. Now be careful not to stare, just a few seconds, with a warm smile should do the trick.

Nodding- Nodding your head up and down not only lets the speaker know that you are interested and engaged in the conversation, but it also lets them know that you are listening. Have you ever had a conversation with someone and they nod their head side to side? This is an indication that the listener has made up their, the speaker is wrong, and they have stopped listening and are ready for a rebuttal. Another thing that you can do wrong is be a human bobble-head. Only nod occasionally, and when the speaker is making a point, even if you do not agree with the point.

Energy Level- This is perhaps the most important aspect for the SOFTENER Listening Technique. Now don’t be bouncing off the walls, but don’t stand there completely emotionless like a corpse. Be excited, SHOW them that you are listening. Take deep breathes, get some oxygen to your brain. Be awake and energized.

Relative Distance- The distance between yourself and the speaker is very important. Too far away, and it feels as if though you are not involved. Too close and you are invading a persons personal space. A good rule of thumb is that you should be about an arms length away.

Now go out and practice these techniques. Use them all the time with everyone you speak with.